Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future (May 31, 2015)The summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: the product of a five-year process of hearing from survivors and compiling evidence. The report calls the schools agents of "cultural genocide" responsible for enormous abuses and lasting damage. It calls for education and reconciliation; according to commission head Murray Sinclair, "The survivors need to know that, having been heard and understood, that we will act to ensure the repair of damages is done."

Borneo's Killer Dams (July 3, 2014)Sarawak, Malaysia, is home to thousands of endemic species, forty indigenous groups, and one of the largest transboundary rainforests remaining in the world. The state is also suffering from one of the world's highest rates of deforestation; only 5% of its primary forests remain. Now, Sarawak's forests and their inhabitants face another threat: the damming of its rivers for hydroelectric power.

The Bone Collectors (June 14, 2014)The remains of hundreds of Aboriginal people, dug up from sacred ground and once displayed in museums all over the world, are now stored in a Canberra warehouse. When will they be given a national resting place?

The Blossoming of Idle No More (March 14, 2014)The First Nations-led movement Idle No More emerged in Canada in December 2012 to protest legislation that threatened both the rights of First Nations and environmental protections. The movement has since spread into the U.S. and beyond  and has become one of the central voices in the struggle for Indigenous and ecological justice.

Day Of Mourning Statement From Leonard Peltier (November 29, 2013)It is yet another year. It seems like a thousand years ago but only a year in time in reality from the last time I dictated one of these statement for the day of mourning so, again, I want to say as last time, that I am honoured that you would want to hear my words.

First Nations Under Surveillance (June 9, 2011)There needs to be unity on the ground with coordinated political actions between First Nations Peoples in order to protect, defend and advance First Nation pre-existing sovereignty, and First Nation Aboriginal and Treaty rights to lands and resources. Divide and conquer tactics can only be met with new strategies of alliance-building, and by bringing the leadership back down to the land.

From Ecological Disaster to Constitutional Crisis (May 18, 2010)The master plan for damming the Amazon river system, which includes Belo Monte and the Xingú dams, was originally created in the 1970s by the military dictatorship then in power. It essentially treats the Amazon as a reservoir of natural resources to be extracted without regard for the destruction of its riverine and forest environment or the displacement and pauperization of its indigenous and local Brazilian inhabitants.

Bloody Oil (November 1, 2009)The extraction of oil from tar sands is perhaps the most ecologically insane idea on the planet. Four First Nations representatives from Canada travelled to Britain to participate in the London climate camp and the country's biggest annual gathering of climate activists. Organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network and supported by the New Internationalist, the group's aim was to internationalize the campaign for a complete tar sands moratorium.

Feeling Racism (October 26, 2009)I have found that when a person has faced racism and discrimination, he can never forget it, it stays with him always. Seeing my mother treated with such disrespect and rudeness, only because of her race, was worse than being discriminated against myself. It burned into my soul, and it will never go away.

Lazy Journalists are the Darlings of the Corporations (October 2, 2009)Lazy journalists are great friends of the corporations. They are known as "armchair journalists" because they sit in comfort and rewrite press releases from politicians and corporations. To spice it up a bit, they dial a few numbers, get a few comments and call it a news story. They are the "darlings of the energy companies," as Buffy Sainte Marie says.

Last Frontier (October 1, 2009)Afro-descendant communities in Colombia are fighting to retain control of their ancestral goldmines in the face of pressure from private interests.

An Unlikely Alliance: Indigenous and Campesinos Build an Alliance for Self-Defense (June 1, 2009)In Colombia, campesinos are mostly non-indigenous family farmers who have often been pitted against indigenous people by wealthy landowners and corporations. Yet despite being traditional rivals, the Barí and campesino communities have been driven to a partnership by common enemies, including multinational mining companies, complicit Colombian regulatory agencies, and the US government.

Grassroots Power and Non-Market Economies (May 1, 2009)People are organized across many sectors that have never chosen to step out into the popular movement before. For example, indigenous peoples in the last 10 years or so have made a determination that they could no longer organize just as indigenous but had to become part of the so-called anti-globalization movement.

Growing Poverty Is Shrinking Mexico's Rain Forest (December 8, 2002)The struggle for land has started to pit the Zapatista rebel movement against ecologists who want to save the remains of the forest. The Zapatistas declared war on Mexico's government nearly nine years ago over the poverty of peasants in Chiapas. Today the movement criticizes efforts to conserve the bioreserve as a "war of extermination against our indigenous communities."

Cree Agenda Becomes Part of Federal Election (1999)The politicians of all parties are acting as if Aboriginal rights are irrelevant to this question of Quebec secession. Not only is it relevant: it is, in fact, central to the whole question. And if the politicians would only admit this frankly, the terms of the whole debate would be changed overnight.

Quebec Agrees to Negotiate, Kidnap Crees First But "Negotiate" (1997)Canadians as a whole seem to be unaware of the depth of the double standards advocated by the separatist leaders. We Crees are only too grimly aware of them, however, since we will be the first and most deeply affected community if the separatists ever get a chance to put their current secessionist policies into practice.

1992 The Theology of Self-Discovery Offers Hope (1990)The Self-Discovery campaign does not confine itself to the struggles of Indigenous People but addresses the concerns of all social and racial groups who have experienced social/cultural destruction under the yoke of colonialism.

Connexions Annual Overview: Native Peoples (October 1, 1989)Natives have been intensifying their resistance, and more militant forms of protest are becoming increasingly common. Canadians concerned with social justice can also be working in solidarity with the Native peoples in their struggle for justice.

The Fusion of Anabaptist, Indian and African as the American Radical Tradition (1987)The native American radical tradition, originating ultimately in the radical religious currents who "lost" at the very dawn of capitalism, and their meeting with the non-Western peoples--Indian and African--who shaped early American culture as much as white people, might have something very unique to contribute to the current and still completely unresolved crisis of the international revolutionary left.

A Basic Call to Consciousness (1977)A message given by the Hau de no sau nee (or traditional Six Nations council at Onondaga) also called the Iroquois Confederacy to the Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in September, 1977.

ReznetReznet is a Native American news, information and entertainment Web site that also trains and mentors American Indian college students around the country as they prepare for journalism careers.

World Rainforest MovementAn international organization involved in efforts to defend the world's rainforests. Works to secure the lands and livliehoods of forest peoples and fights commercial logging, dams, mining, plantations and other interferences that threaten the survival of these people and their habitat.

Other Links & Resources

Aboriginal Newspapers ListLists aboriginal publications (past and present) held in print or microform in the collection of Library and Archives Canada.

Aboriginal OntarioHistorical Perspectives on the First NationsAuthor: Rogers, Edward S.; Smith, Donald B. (eds.)Essays on the history of Ontario's native people.

Broken CircleAuthor: Fontaine, TheodoreA two-part excerpt from Theodore Fontaine's book Broken Circle, a memoir of surviving the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School in Manitoba -- and pursuing his own path to healing.

Bury My Heart At Wounded KneeAn Indian History of the American WestAuthor: Brown, DeeA well documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian.

Facing West: the Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire BuildingAuthor: Drinnon, RichardFrom John Endicott's war on the Niantics and Pequots, to the horrors of the My Lai massacre, Drinnon illustrates how Indian-hating in the Americas became a national pastime, and how that same hate was turned against the native populations of the Phillipines and Southeast Asia.

I Have Lived Here Since the World BeganAn Illustrated History of Canada's Native PeopleAuthor: Ray, Arthur J.Ray shows that Native culture played an important -- and largely unrecognized -- part in Canada's economic development. Rather than being "civilized" by European explorers, the indigenous people were already accomplished traders, artisans, farmers and hunters.

A Long and Terrible ShadowWhite Values, Native Rights in the Americas 1492-1992Author: Berger, Thomas R.Against the odds, Native peoples have waged a tenacious struggle to survive and the re-emerge as distinct cultures.

Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - June 5, 2015Author: Diemer, Ulli (editor); Rickwood, Darien Yawching (production)This issue of Other Voices focuses on residential schools. As documented by the just-released report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, residential schools were set up to forcibly 'assimilate' Native children by taking them away from their parents and communities, and depriving them of their language, culture, history, and emotional supports. Based as they were on a system of arbitrary power and cruelty, it is not surprising that they also fostered physical and sexual abuse of the children forced into the schools. We spotlight the report and the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as films, books, and survivor stories. Also in this issue: the Orwellian language and tactics being used to sell 'anti-terrorist' legislation, mind-boggling subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, and, on the other side of the ledger, stories of courage and resistance.

Seven Myths of the Spanish ConquestAuthor: Restall, MatthewRestall explodes myths that were long taken for historical truth and points to a larger and more complex interaction between the indigenous people and the Europeans. He shows how Indian culture adapted and displayed post conquest vitality.

The Seventh FireThe Struggle for Aboriginal GovernmentAuthor: Smith, DanDescribes the struggles of aboriginal people to run their own affairs.

Stolen ContinentsThe "New World" Through Indian EyesAuthor: Wright, RonaldA history of the Americas through Native eyes.

Struggle For The LandIndigenous Resistance To Genocide Ecocide And Exproporiation In Contemporary North AmericaAuthor: Churchill, WardDocuments the struggle by North America's Indigenous Peoples for values and justice in land claims.

Viva Yasuni! Life vs Big OilNew Internationalist July 2008A look at the Yasuni rainforest in Ecuador and its imminent destruction by oil companies.

Learning from our History

The Fusion of Anabaptist, Indian and African as the American Radical Tradition-The native American radical tradition, originating ultimately in the radical religious currents who “lost” at the very dawn of capitalism, and their meeting with the non-Western peoples – Indian and African – who shaped early American culture as much as white people, might have something very unique to contribute to the current and still completely unresolved crisis of the international revolutionary left.

Sources-A directory that enables journalists to find spokespersons of organizations. Organizations that list themselves in Sources signficantly increase their odds of getting called by reporters when they are doing a story of their issues..